The Commons area : the WALKABLE part of Halifax

A walk through the green and historic Commons is a foot-friendly alternative to the steep slopes of Halifax's waterfront areas :

As any tourist with tired legs can quickly tell you , it is far far easier to walk the long length of peninsular Halifax than it is to walk the seemingly shorter width.

The waterfront of the peninsula of Halifax rises (or plunges - depends on your point of view !) precipitously to the water on all four sides.

The view from these slopes are wonderful , but going up and down those slopes is hard on the legs.

However the very top of long and narrow peninsular Halifax is nice and level and this is why Halifax's public space - its Commons area - is laid out long and narrow across that top.

The Commons area itself is only about half a square mile in size (two city blocks by twelve city blocks)  but the land to the immediate south of it ( the famous Point Pleasant Park) and to the immediate north of it (the historic Hydrostone District) are both within easy (level) walking distance ....

Summer Street is the 'Main Street' running the length of the Halifax Commons

One can easily walk - though not drive - through the entire longways length of the Halifax Commons , from Cunard Street to South Street , along Summer Street and its walkable extensions.

The roughly one half square mile of the Halifax Commons is only two blocks wide but ten blocks long - its long and narrow shape accurately reflecting the long and narrow shape of Halifax peninsula itself.

Beginning at Cunard and June Streets, one walks due east along a paved path across the North and Central Commons grasslands until one come to the beginning of the Commons' own 'Main Street', the always sunny Summer Street.

Summer Street ends (as a car roadway) at the entrance to the QE II complex at University and Summer, but one can walk through that entrance to the end of the Commons at South Street.

No , the Main Street of the emotional heart of our city is certainly not signposted  as such and nor are the street- boundaries of the Halifax Commons indicated by signposts.

Why not ?

Many people believe this is because, sadly , we live in a self-centred age, where everything that is private is exalted and everything that is publicly shared - what the human family holds in common- is denigrated.

In the case of the Halifax Commons , I have always found this particularly odd because it contains institutions that  we all must pass through as human beings --- regardless of our wealth, race or gender.

We all are born , we all must die : The Halifax Commons holds our region's only maternity hospital, our biggest general hospital , a palliative care hospice and finally a large number of cemeteries.

I entertain hopes that our HRM Council might,  someday , signpost this emotional core of our city --- and signpost the walk-only extensions of Summer Street at Cunard and at South ....

Like Halifax peninsula itself, the central heart of Halifax (the Commons area) is long and thin

While some cities like Edmonton and Paris are free to expand ever outwards in concentric circles , many cities are constrained geographically.

Both Manhattan and peninsular Halifax are basically long and thin and surrounded by wide deep waters.

So their central centres are long and thin like the island or peninsula surrounding them, rather than round or square as in cities like Edmonton or Paris.

Despite this, both still function successfully as city centres : giant "Concerts in Central Park" are as famous in New York as giant "Concerts on the Garrison Grounds" or "Concerts on the North Commons" are in Halifax.

What is physically as big a part of peninsula Halifax as Central Park is of Manhattan - but much less visible ?

If you answered The Halifax Commons correctly you're probably a member of The Friends Of The Commons !

Both take up about 5% of the land space but the Central Park is much much more visible , because it is outlined by fences and is vivid park greenery surrounded by dull grey concrete buildings.

By contrast, only a relatively small portion of the Halifax Commons remains a flat piece of short cropped conventional 'parkland'.

But almost all of the original Commons, in the wider and truer sense of that word , is still here, still acting as a common space for all citizens of Halifax.

It runs from Cunard Street in the north to South Street in the south and between between Robie Street to the north and the street extension of  North Park, Ahern, Bell Road and South Park to the east  --- roughly 250 acres of out of the 4500 acres of peninsula Halifax.

Today when some ideology-driven government leaders propose that if something is not private property that it does not exist or should not exist, it is good to know that earlier governments didn't feel that way at all.

More than 250 years ago , the Commons was a public 'wild' space where all were able to search for firewood or water, or herd their animals.

Today it still remains home to public - common - activities of a more modern sort.

Among them :  hospitals, museums, schools, universities , libraries , cemeteries , military bases and parade squares, a site for public hangings, public gardens , sports and concert grounds, music halls , skating ovals, children's playgrounds and yes plum-ordinary grassed parkland.

When Haligonians gather en masse, either to hear the Stones and a Beatle or to protest nuclear arms , The Commons is still where they gather.

This blog is dedicated to letting you know more about upcoming events in and around this lively central core at the heart of Halifax.